blog.insanehippie.net

As a Small Government Conservative (I would use the word “Libertarian”, but that’s a loaded word), it pains me to take the side of the Federal Government against a guy who can’t even simple facts straight.

Google Video: America, Freedom to Fascism trailer

1. Strike One
[i]About 8m:29s into the movie bit of text says “Executive Order 10990″ leading you to beleive that E.O. 10990 is some fascist order that “allows the gov’t to take over all modes of transportation”[/i] NOWHERE in the Order is the word transportation, or anything even remotely talking about transportation.

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10990.htm
Executive Order 10990
RE-ESTABLISHING THE FEDERAL SAFETY COUNCIL

WHEREAS section 33 (c) of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 784), declared it to be the purpose of the Congress to reduce the number of accidents and injuries among Government officers and employees, encourage safe practices, eliminate work hazards and health risks, and reduce compensable injuries; …
…
WHEREAS the President is authorized by the Act to establish by Executive order a safety council composed of representatives of Government departments and agencies to serve as an advisory body to the Secretary of Labor in furtherance of the safety program carried out by the Secretary pursuant to section 33 of the Act and to undertake such other measures as he deems proper to prevent injuries and accidents to persons covered by the Act:
…
JOHN F. KENNEDY
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 2, 1962.

The most offensive clip from this trailer is a alleged quote from President Bush saying “the constitution is just a g-dd-mn piece of paper” in November 2005. I checked Google for this and it all comes back to anonymous sources (The New York Times’s favorite kind of source!) in the GOP as repoted by the much ridiculed “Capitol Hill Blue” http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

Unless Capitol Hill Blue can name sources with an affidavit I don’t think it’s true at all.

2. Strike Two

A little after nine minutes into the trailer the video says that President George W. Bush and ex-President Bill Clinton spied on the phone calls of Americans. This isn’t new and has been done by the National Security Agency since the 1940’s during ex-President Truman’s years and ever since. Tho this assumes that the gov’t actually PAYS ATTENTION to what you say on the phone. The government for one, isn’t efficient enough, nor does it have the manpower or computing power to actually monitor everyone in the world, or domestically in America. Unless you trigger keywords relating to overthrowing the goverment, bombing the White House, or mass murder, the government won’t care what you say.

This would be similar to saying that Google, Yahoo Search and MSN are all spying on the entire Internet since their websites save copies of everything it searches. It’s very simple, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL, THE AMERICAN FEDERAL/STATE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE WHAT YOU WRITE UNLESS YOU THREATEN A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL.

Being wary of the goverment is a good thing, but abject paranoia and jumping to insane conclusions is another.